On Thu, 2005-07-28 at 00:50, Bryan J. Smith wrote:
On Wed, 2005-07-27 at 23:46 -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
The recipients don't have to use the same server for meeting requests to work, although when creating one you only see the availability of the people that are.
That's because the servers synchronize their stores. In fact, server distribution is why Microsoft doesn't do server-side scheduling. They merely replicate the stores.
That's only a factor on the availability side. Often you have to just pick a time anyway and let the recipients deal with conflicts. What I mean is that outlook will send meeting requests to email destinations on servers that don't sync and it goes into the recipient's personal calendar regardless.
Now if you're using "Shared Folders" inside of the client itself (client attached meta-data for calendaring info), that doesn't require a server at all. Of course, most of that automated functionality _breaks_ if you install security patches for various Outlook versions and lock them down.
Right, but personal calendars still work whether you share anything or not.
Evolution supports the standard vCalendar attachment for scheduling without a server-store. Unfortunately, pretty much _nothing_ else does. |-<
Outlook will do this too when used without an exchange server. However different versions don't even interoperate with themselves. The office2000 version has a bug in the mime format that is fixed in the xp/2003 versions but they don't work right with each other. Evolution works with these but it was too buggy to depend on back when I tried to use it that way.
However, when using pre-2000 exchange server and evolution working with it in imap mode, all the attachments show up as non-standard tnef's instead of mime vcal/ical format.
AFAIK, Outlook-TNEF don't do vCalendar, but a variation.
Hmmm, I think I was running some tnef->mime converter via procmail on my mail server when I had it working without exchange, but that was only needed when the outlook settings were wrong. I haven't found a way to glue that functionality into evolution itself when pulling messages directly from an exchange server via imap. I assume this is unnecessary when using exchange2000 and the evolution adapter.
I'm looking for something that will eliminate the need to keep a windows box on my desk just to beep at me when I'm supposed to join a conference call.
In other words you want a way for Freedomware/Standardware** clients to keep up with the moving target of Hostageware** clients/servers that are being mandated in your organization.
Yes.
It's one thing to expect Freedomware/Standardware** to work with Commerceware**, because Commerceware vendors value their customers and won't break compatibility between versions. But Hostageware vendors do precisely that with each version, to _prevent_ compatibility.
The email side is moderately standard. I think even the tnef cruft is understood well enough if someone wanted to deal with those attachments.
Gartner said it best (paraphrased), "Organizations must be vigilant in Open Source adoption, as a vendor will never offer a way out of lock- in."
The problem is that there aren't any great alternatives that combine the features of outlook/exchange and even if some are available now it is too late.
But, exchange2000 will probably work right with evolution as the client. Does anyone know if the notifications and updates get into the evolution calendar when received even if you don't open/accept the request?
Good question.
Because Exchange is _not_ a server-side collaboration system, but only a store for client-side collaboration, the question becomes ...
- Does the Outlook client making the request do this?
- Or does the Evolution client receiving the request do this?
Now exchange _is_ an e-mail server, with e-mail rules. So it might be tied into this and the user store. It's a good question.
As I understand it, the evolution connector to exchange2000 uses the webmail interface under the covers so the web interface might even play a part here. We're still on pre-2000 exchange and its web interface sucks, so I don't know much about how the newer versions are supposed to work. Anyway, I consider it a feature that outlook adjusts calendar updates like the time of a conference call when the mail is received even if you don't open the message.